Pakistan Willing To Help Train Afghan Troops

February 2, 2010|By Alex Rodriguez Tribune Newspapers

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Pakistan has told U.S. military leaders it is willing to help train Afghan soldiers to fight Taliban forces, the country's army chief said Monday, a promising gesture by a government at times skeptical of Washington's strategy.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in his first briefing with foreign journalists, sought to counter criticism from the West that Pakistan is a reluctant ally when it comes to battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Stressing the importance of a stable, secure Afghanistan on Pakistan's western border, Kayani said his country has offered to help prepare Afghanistan's army to assume sole responsibility for the country's security.

"We're talking to the U.S. and [NATO forces]. We are interested in getting more involved in training of the Afghan national army," Kayani said during a briefing inside the Pakistan army's heavily guarded headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. "This is good for the short term and the long term."

Pakistan has rankled Obama administration officials because of its refusal to militarily pursue Afghan Taliban who use Pakistan's tribal areas as staging areas for attacks on Afghanistan-based U.S. and NATO forces.

Training of Afghanistan's army and police is seen as vital to Obama's strategy to defeat the Taliban and ready the country for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In an assessment of the Afghan war released last fall, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said the Afghan army's contingent of 92,000 troops needed to be ramped up to 134,000 by October, and the Afghan police force needed to grow from 84,000 to 160,000.

Progress in readying Afghanistan's security forces, McChrystal said in his assessment, "is critical in order to preserve the sustained commitment and support of the international community."

Development of Afghan security forces has been slow. The Afghan army is burdened by corruption, meager pay and a lack of instructors.

One of Pakistan's strongest concerns about Obama's strategy has been the president's timeline for beginning a pullout of troops by July 2011. The withdrawal would be gradual and contingent upon the readiness of Afghan security forces, officials in Washington have said. But Pakistani leaders worry the United States will leave Afghanistan while the country remains unstable.